The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-04-08
THE GLORY OF ZION RESTORED.

Again will bnld thee, and thou shalt be
built, o virgin of Israel; thou shalt again be
adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in
the dances OF them that make merry.
Behold, | will bring them from the north
country, and gather them from the coasts of
the earth, and with them the blind and the
lame, the woman with child and her that
tistvailcth with child together; great com
pany shall return thithcr.--Jer. xxi, Is.
Most travellers are drawn to Palestine by
the glory and the gloom that mingle in her
sacred story. They are allured by the en-
chantment which gathers about things dis
tant and long ago. They would gladly
step out of mechanical and manufactur-
asleep for ages, and which shows the same
paths and lifts up the same hills that were
trodden oy angels and messengers Of God.
They would have the satisfaction of stand
ing on the housetop in Main and looking
along the stony pathway toward the tombs
on the hillside, though never again should
a bier be stopped on the way to the grave,
and never again should the dead man be
They would look with reverence and deep
thought upon the sea of Galilee, though
human eyes should never again see One
walk on the waves, or human ears ever
again hear voice of sufficient power to
hush the storm. Such is the sacred charm
of the past in Palestine that millions have
felt its power and have been drawn from
distant lands by the sacred spell.
And yet for the Holy Land there must
be future which shall outshine the past
in glory, and which shall not repeat its
sorrow. If We were to judge only from
rational grounds, we should say that
land hallowed with such sacred memories,
and having power to draw millions of pill
grims from the ends Of the earth in its des-
olationS, would be still more sought out
not only for brief sojourn, but for perma-
nent habitation, in the worlds great future
of restored brotherhood and righteous
peace
Millions have sacrificed time and money
and health for the satisfaction of seeing
Bethlehem and Jerusalem and Nazareth,
Carmel and Tabor and Olivct, the plains of
Sharon and Jezreel and Gennesaret. They
have ridden unruly horses, slept in unfur-
nished rooms, climbed difficult and dan
gerous paths, and all for the sake of seeing
the sacred places for once and for few
hours, How much more will millions
make the pilgrimage when the whole land
is provided with better carriages than the
chariots of Solomon, better inns than the
Samaritan found for the wounded man on
the way to Jericho. The one Book that
tells the story OF Palestine has been trans
lated into TWO hundred languages, it is ac-
cessable to two hundred millions of people.
One seventh part of the great human
family knows something about the land
where Jesus lived and taught and died,
and where Jerusalem disowned its king.
How much greater interest will be felt in
that land when the Book which tells its
story is translated into every language
spoken by man, and it has found its way
into every human dwelling on the face of
the earth, and the cities and hills and
plains OF Palestine are sacred 10 two thou
sand millions of people.
There was a time when millions OF peo-
pie lived among the hills of Galilee, where
now there arc only half dozen impover-
ished and wretched villages. The noun
tains Of Ephram and the hills of Judah
and the vale Of the Jordan and the plains
of Sharon and Iezreel and the slopes of
Carmel and Tabor were once all alive with
where now one looks in vain
for a vineyard or an olive orchard, or a
wheat field. But the climate is as fair, the
soil as good, the seasons as constant as in
the days Of Roman rule and Grccian cul-
ture and Hebrew patriotism. The same
sun and showers, the same spring and
summer that brings forth to-day wilder
ness OF thistles in Genessaret, of wild grass
in Esdraelon, and of peoples in Philistia,
brought forth in old time OH the same
plains the finest wheat and the best of
figs, the fairest olives and the richest
grapes.
oppression - thc cuise Which, Has ihaue
the people mad and the country desolate.
AIisrulc is the malediction which has
poisoned the air with miasma and emptiei
The land Of It's inhabitants. Let the reck-
less and the wasteful disposition of the
Moslem give place to liberty and justice
and peace in Palestine; let it become as
ga e for man TO pIeneh his field and bnila